Originally posted by Nilsen
But Hydogen in cars are still better than batteries right? If you have access to lots of hydro electic power then it will be more effective to make hydrogen for cars etc than it is to use pure electric power as fuel... or am i wrong?
Hydrogen allows a more dense energy storage in a car. Better range, easier "recharge". So in that way it is better than battery electric cars.
My point was that hydrogen is not just out there for the gathering, it needs to be manufactured. It takes more energy to maufacture than you will get out of the final product. Hydrogen is not an energy source.
Coal you can dig up out of the ground for very little energy expended and shovel it into a fire box and get a tremendous amount of useful energy. It takes less energy to produce coal derived fuel than you get out of the final product. Coal is an energy source.
If you have some other source like hydopower or nuclear you could produce the hydrogen required, and that is fine. But the USA will need to replace the equivalent energy of the petroleum industry in nuclear (probably) and then some to go to a hydrogen economy.